ACCUSED – Matt Calicchio at the courthouse (file photo).
HOBOKEN -- Matt Calicchio, a sometimes controversial young Hoboken political operative, was found not guilty Thursday afternoon in Union City Municipal Court of a charge that he harassed Hoboken Board of Education member Theresa Minutillo.
In the past, Calicchio has worked for candidates who have opposed allies of current Mayor Dawn Zimmer. When Zimmer was running for council in 2007, Calicchio and Zimmer exchanged charges after Calicchio took a picture of Zimmer walking her dog.
Minutillo is part of a school board faction that is allied with Zimmer.
In Thursday's hearing, Calicchio faced allegations that he yelled at Minutillo while she was picking up her daughter at Wallace Elementary School.
While Calicchio was found not guilty, Judge Sixto Macias openly expressed that he did not believe Calicchio, who had denied the allegations during testimony.
Calicchio said in testimony that he is an employee of Hoboken Councilwoman Beth Mason's "civic league."
Last week, Calicchio declined to comment about the matter. For more on this story, see the upcoming print edition this weekend. See links below for previous stories on this matter, including here. --Stephen LaMarca
this longer article clearly states the judge's belief that matt and tania were lying on the stand under oath, and that he believed theresa's side of the story. according to the article, the judge apparently let matt off the hook because the magnitude of his harassment didn't quite reach the level of criminal behavior. but the judge clearly said matt did in fact harass her and her child.
A rather dry story getting the basics from the HR Saturday :
Judge Sixto Macias believed BoE Theresa Minutillo
Judge Macias: "People openly lied (here) which is worse than a harassment charge.
The entire court believe both Beth Mason employees Matt Calicchio and Tania Garcia are liars.
Kiss the wife. "Word is" before long you'll be someone's spouse in the big house.
Doosh.
That tells me the person posting under 5 names here is very, very worried--as well he should be. Because the topic is no longer Minutillo, whom the judge believed, sympathized with but did not feel MC's "bullying" rose to the level of criminal conduct.
The topic is the admissions made by Callichio and Garcia under oath that they are employed by The Mason Civic League, a 501(c)3 non-profit.
The Mason Civic League's Exemption Code is "Unconditional Exemption". Which means, The Mason Civic League is an organization which receives a substantial part of its support from a governmental unit or the general public 170(b)(1)(A)(vi). Now we have a COURT recognizing 2 political operatives as receiving PUBLIC TAX-EXEMPT FUNDS.
Are you going to blame THAT on bloggers?
BIG PROBLEM for Mason and 2 others. One of them is posting here like the Energizer bunny.
And he can "shoot the messenger" all he wants, because transcripts are available- for any individual or the IRS or the criminal prosecution division of the U.S. Treasury. Take your pick.
http://grafixavenger.blogspot.com/2012/06/bombshell-exclusive-minitullos-moral.html
You are a computer clown that does nothing, but use the blog for her own political advantages. Then you have the nerve to turn around and try to point the finger at everyone else.
How do you look at yourself in the mirror and not laugh. You act as if you are on CNN with these ground breaking stories. You use photo shop to create corny jokes about people. You are a hack that twists information so that you can try to destroy people.
People like you can pretend to be all about justice and doing the right thing, but you spit hate at people and make Nazi jokes. Karma will come back to bite you in the a** and when it does all will be laughing at you just like they laugh at your blog.
As for Patch, the Reporter should be looking in to the possibility that Claire isn't writing about this because she is because she has been threatened to lose her visa if she crosses a certain line. For those that don't know it, Claire is from the Netherlands, she is in the US on a work visa. One simple jaywalking ticket and back to Netherlands she goes. She is overly friendly with certain old guard people and this might be because she is forced to like them. Old guard people can easily set her up for any numerous types of falls, they've done it before they'll do it again.
Nick
Whatever dude, you're just as demented. So is it true the inmates think you're a tool too? Is your nickname really Shirley at work?
Matt Calicchio threatened to have me thrown out of the meeting held at City Hall on the sale Hoboken University Medical Center because I vocalized my support for the Mayor, the Council Majority and the Sale. What utter gall this Tool has to go around harassing and threatening people? Is he aware that we still have a Democracy in this country(albeit, a dwindling one)..or do the normal rules not apply to
Hudson County politics. Hang your head in shame, Beth Mason, for paying this legend-in-his-own-mind gopher to do your dity work. I guess your checkbook is the only thing that stands between Matt and the local Welfare office.
From what I'm reading the judge verbally tongue lashed Matt Calicchio, his witness and fellow Beth Mason employee Tania Garcia and took a shot at the attorney Elise DiNardo for blatant witness perjury.
Pretty ugly all around. Too bad the judge didn't have enough to convict but he did not let it go lightly.
http://grafixavenger.blogspot.com/2012/06/bombshell-exclusive-minitullos-moral.html
http://www.hobokenhorse.com/2012/06/beth-mason-employee-matt-calicchio.html
PS. Greenshirt writes more elegantly than MSV. But not being very bright, you wouldn't notice that.
You forgot the most important words to describe Mr. Calicchio. NOT GUILTY!!
That's also the best that can be said of Tim Occhipinti's 575 paid "workers" for 1260 votes. So far...
If you were a man, you'd understand that a thug like Calicchio harassing a woman and child is just the scum of the earth, no matter if a judge - who was clearly DISGUSTED by him - can't find him guilty.
But you're not a man so you don't get that and think it's ok for a beast to conduct himself that way with women and children as long as he isn't convicted.
Maybe you can find a man to explain it to you.
And while you're at it, maybe you can google "balls" and see if you can buy a pair. Men have those too. You clearly don't.
You are just mad that MC wasn't found guilty. You are such a bitter little man who hides behind a computer with a fake name. You spit hate at people in a blog and act as if you are better than others when in reality you seek to destroy the lives of others. I would be insulted by your "not a man" remark, but a punk b*tch like you has no idea what a real man is.
It appears that by Mrs. Minutillo taking Mr. Calicchio to court, many facts have been brought to the attention of the public about Mrs. Mason's political organization and has raised many new questions.
Does any other Hoboken Councilperson have a full time paid staff ?
It appears that your comments are improving since our first lesson. Great work!
The only thing here is that I would not capitalize councilperson, since you are not referring to a specific member of the council. For example, Councilwoman Beth Mason is capitalized because it is part of a formal title. On the other hand, "the council members" would not be capitalized since it is not part of a title for one specific person. Also, the question mark should be closer to the word "staff." There is no need for a space there.
Nice work today!
Final Grade: B
Have someone explain to you that it has now been testified in open court that an elected official is paying a serial thug. That trumps your lame-assed "paid blogger" tripe. Which you know isn't true.
Carry on. We are enjoying the desperation. And it is well-placed desperation. More has come to light, and believe me, little Jimmy B, you don't even know how desperate to be.
If in fact you are writing a pro city hall blog I can understand jumping all over the media to do this and not cover anything else. Have some faith and they will probably do fine, they already are doing a fair job on this story and I find it interesting that Patch is now being harassed to write this story that they have not covered yet.
The print story should provide more details about the judge's comments together with a response from Mrs. Mason. If Mrs. Mason declines to comment it should include a statement to that effect. This is not only the minimum that ethical journalism would require, but it is consistent with the HR's past practices.
A failure to describe the judge's comments accurately and to seek comment from Mrs. Mason, who was acknowledged in the testimony to be Mr. Calliccio's employer would be extremely unfortunate and give credence to the perception that Mrs. Mason's ad buys have distorted the HR's coverage.
Like Mr. Calliccio, the HR is innocent until proven guilty. On saturday, the proof, one way or another will be therefor all to see.
Will the HR be reporting he sells baseball card reproductions at 12th and Washington?
The good news is the HR has an opportunity to redeem itself although don't expect any more page 3 ads from Beth Mason for a while.
Will you be revealing how much money you have raised through your fundraising pleas on your Horse blog, and which politicians are the source of that funding and where the money comes from?
There are too many politicians and their paid commenters leaving messages here. Every day I read another theory about the newspaper being either in the mayor's pocket or in beth mason's comment, with five reasons why either side is true, posted by both sides. I suspect the reporter will have the intelligence to ignore the rabble rousers on all sides and write the truth. Not an easy thing to do with people YELLING at you IN CAPITAL LETTERS. It's pretty clear to a normal person that what's written here is a quick summary, it does say there will be more.
Your OPRAH comment leads me to believe you were not in the courtroom. Can we have the name of the person who gave you the information so that we can find out which politician they work for and whether they are paid?
Hoboken politics. Can't live with it, can't live without it.
Until you do a little homework on your own, I'm not doing any for you. This kind of dumbass equivalency - everyone is the same - is typically the hallmark of the intellectually lazy. Let me know when you make an effort of any kind and we can continue.
Meantime, when an employee of a sitting council person is deemed a liar, bully, fool by a judge who also stated that his kind had a chilling effect on the democratic process and that board members should not have to put up with it - do you think it it BULLYING to demand a comment from his paymaster who is herself on the public's dime and supposed to represent higher standards of personal conduct?
I'm just trying to understand how foolish you intend to be in your, um, critique.
Please note that the words "bullying" "lying" "fool" and "garbage" (used to describe the testimony of Calicchio and Garcia) will all come out in the transcripts. As far as sources go, it's a small town. Wake the hell up.
And YOU KNOW that the transcript is a whole lot worse than what you have here. The judge called Callichio a fool and told him he was being used.
There is no reasonable journalistic excuse for NOT asking Beth Mason why she employs someone who just had a judge to tear him a new one in court and who was FILMED taking legally posted signs from a storefront - another act of brazen intimidation from the out-of-control Callichio.
Are you going to ask Mason what she really pays this "bully" for? "Bully" as you know was the judge's word.
Are you going to ask if she pays him to go to BOE meetings, since that is likely a violation of the charter of the Civic Association which provides the tax-advantaged funds?
Are you going to do ANYTHING AT ALL that a competent journalist would do?
Great comment! However, I'm unsure if Grafix Avenger needs to be labeled as the "Hoboken" Grafix Avenger. I have never heard of a different "Grafix Avenger." Your comment is succinct, which is helpful to the reader. In order to receive an A on this comment, a link to the blog would have been necessary.
Final Grade: B
Do you have any opinions on any topic other than the composition of my posts ?
The people of Hoboken have to question Mrs. Mason's competance in chosing her paid staff and whould hope that since Matt Calicchio represents her, that she will exercise greater control his public actions in the future.
I am disappointed with this comment.
1) Your first sentence has two repetitive clauses. By stating you agree with the judge, you already made it clear that you disagreed with the defendant's denials.
2) Whould is spelled incorrectly. The correct spelling is "would."
3) Competance is also spelled incorrectly. The correct spelling is "competence."
4) The second clause in the second sentence needs to be rewritten. I would recommend rewriting the sentence to read as follows:
"The people of Hoboken should question Mrs. Mason's decision to hire someone who becomes involved in court causes surrounding allegations of harassment. Since the defendant represents Mrs. Mason as a member of her staff, Mason should encourage him to behave appropriately in the future."
Final Grade: D
Mrs. Mason has not filed with ELEC since July 2011 despite spending a fortune on political activity including at least 2 TV commercials when she was trying to destroy the hospital
Ryan Yacco, a political consultant GOTV guy who worked for Cammarrano, Mason and most recently Pascrell is on the "Civic League" payroll as well.
Things that will make both New Jersey ELEC and the IRS go hmmmmmmm! Maybe it should make the Hoboken Reporter go hmmmmmmm as well.
it's really sad what money can buy nowadays.